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OLEG KULIK18THE SAME. ENTER SKOTININ,MAN ON ALL FOURSMila Bredikhina, 1994 (excerpt)Freud believed that the figure of a humanbeing standing upright is at the beginningof the cultural process. A human beingstands upright and then irreversible processestake place: smell is no longer valuable,genitalia become conspicuous asnever before, shame appears, sexualexcitement becomes almost constant – inother words, the road to culture is clear.And so too the road to dissatisfaction. Inthe case of the latter, energy is significantlydepleted and the tired mind isinclined to go again on all fours. Oleg Kulikwent on all fours as a result of an excessof energy. This makes him resembleProfessor Presbury, a character fromConan Doyle’s story, Man on all Fours. Anold professor obsessed with a passion fora young woman easily climbed verticalwalls at night, squealed and jumped,teased dogs and unfortunately came to abad end. The source of his mysteriouslyenergy was simple enough: it was a sexhormone of a black headed monkey. […]Kulik claims that it is sufficient for a humanbeing to become the other in order to bean animal, to go on all fours when he orshe loses shame, acquires the sense ofsmell etc. In this process, identifyingoneself with an animal as a non-anthropomorphicOther, one is not losingconnection with one’s own species. Onthe contrary, treating one’s “animal” passionswith such consideration guaranteesattention on the part of other people. Inthe moment of existential inspiration Kulikis pulled away from human beings. Hecould follow the lead of Fonvizin’s character,Skotinin, and say: “What sodomy.I’d better take a walk around a cowshed”.But, unlike Skotinin, Kulik is sure thatinevitably he will be discovered in thatuncivilised place, that culture will catch upwith him. In other words, no matter whereKulik goes with his libido, he would nevertake a walk without being ready tointroduce it into cultural spheres: hewould never walk around a cowshedwithout a video or a camera, without atape recorder, a microphone etc. […]PARADIS ARTIFICIELIrina Kulik (excerpt)Oleg Kulik, who has long existed in thehypostasis of the “Dog-man”, suggests aradically new strategy in his project titledThe New Paradise: a suicidal, doomedattempt to transgress the borders of thehuman and the borders of culture. WhenKulik became an animal in his earlier projectsand performances, he inevitablyturned into a show himself, instead ofbeing an artist or a spectator, and hisresponse to the eternal “don’t-touch”impermeability of a museum was to bitspectators breaking through the barrierfrom the opposite side. The New Paradiseis a project where Kulik goes back to thehuman. He tries to restore the image ofthe lost paradise combining the images ofman with the natural world, which haslong appeared to be the world, which ispossible only when we are absent. […]top: OLEG KULIK“The Mad Dog”performance, 1994b/w photography30,5 x 41 cmbottom: OLEG KULIK“Giraffe, Museum of Nature(New Paradise)”, 2001c-print on aluminium124 x 208 cm